Crash (Brazen Bulls MC #1)(46)

It was a bit past nine in the morning on a sunny day on the late end of mid-April. She’d had her first, albeit short, run since her knee was hurt, and a rousing, slightly risky morning f*ck with Rad to start her day. She’d helped a mom bring a new life into the world, and she was looking forward to lunch—and probably a quickie—with Rad in a few hours. Willa was in a great mood as she left Helen’s room.

The vibe in the corridor felt wrong right away. There wasn’t enough bustle for a Wednesday morning. Passing the waiting room on the way to the nurses’ station, she noticed that every single person there was staring in the same direction. At the television.

She stepped into the room. The news was on, showing a demolished building and rubble and chaos around it. A ‘breaking news’ banner on the bottom of the screen read Explosion in Oklahoma City.

She backed out and hurried to the nurse’s station. There was a small television on the desk, and almost the entire shift team was clustered around it. A couple of doctors, including Dr. Ingersoll, were there, too.

“What’s going on?”

Janet, the shift leader, turned. She was crying. “Somebody blew up the Murrah building! Mike works there!”

Mike was her son. “What?”

Otto, another nurse, answered, “They’re saying a truck exploded. There’s a daycare center in that building. There are babies.”

While they watched, more building debris crashed down to the ground. “Mike! Mike!” Janet wailed.

The head nurse, Marcella, hung up the phone. “They’re calling for help. They need hands in the local ERs and at the site. Ned wants to put a team on a bus as soon as we can. Will—you have emergency experience. And you, Otto. I’ll get your shifts covered. Will you go?”

Neither Otto nor Willa hesitated.

“I want to go, too!” Janet said.

Marcella set a hand on your shoulder. “They’ll take you. But not to work. Find Mike.”

“When do we leave?” Willa asked.

“An hour. If you need to go home, do, but get back here right away.”

Glad to have more to do than sit and watch a horror, Willa hurried to the lounge. She needed to call Rad.

He was at work, too, so she dialed the Sinclair station.

“Delaney Service.”

Willa didn’t recognize the voice. “Um, hi. I’m calling for Rad.”

“Yeah, sure. One sec.” A loud clatter shook Willa’s eardrum, like the handset had been dropped to the desk.

The sounds of the station filled her ear: the ding-ding of the driveway bell. Male voices in low conversation. But no air wrench, no thump and clatter of tools. No laughter. A radio broadcast of the news coming out of Oklahoma City filled the space where activity should have been. Then the shuffle of the handset being picked up.

“Rad here.”

“It’s me.”

His voice changed dramatically, from terse and gruff to soft and rumbly. “Baby. You heard? You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. One of my friends here is worried about her son. He works in that building. The hospital is putting together a team to go help. They need medical on site and at the hospitals. We’re leaving in an hour.”

“Hold up. You don’t leave Tulsa without me.”

That made no sense at all. “What? I don’t—what?” As the sense of his words finally dawned on her, Willa’s breath caught. “You don’t get to tell me where I can and can’t go, Rad. Don’t you dare.”

“Jesus f*ck.” She could practically hear his jaw clench. “Listen to me. You don’t know where Smithers is. You don’t know if he knows where you are. You don’t know if he’s watchin’ and waitin’ for a chance. Away from home, you don’t have protection. You do not go off without me. We’re all talkin’ here about ridin’ to out to help anyway. We’ll swing by the hospital and ride along.”

He had a point; she’d be safer with him than without him. But she tried to imagine what the other nurses and the doctors would think about the Brazen Bulls riding along with their bus, and the image wasn’t pretty. “Rad…”

“I’m not arguin’ this with you, Willa. Be as strong as you need to be, but I’m stronger, and I’m goin’ with you. Can’t keep me off the road, can you?”

“You’re a stubborn *.”

“Bullheaded. Yep. Got a streak of it yourself. And don’t call me *. You know how I feel about it. Find a different insult.”

“Jerk. Butthead. Dick.” She couldn’t keep the smile from her voice.

He laughed. “And that’ll do. We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“I guess I’ll see you then. Rad—what can you do there?”

“Muscle. We can move debris. We can keep the perimeter. We can carry—we can do what we can. We can help.”



oOo



Willa went home and packed a quick bag with a couple pairs of sturdy shoes, a change of clothes, and some toiletries. She played with Ollie in the back yard for a few minutes, then ran next door and asked Mrs. Abrams, a retired bus driver and counted among Ollie’s people, to watch out for him for a day or two.

Mrs. Abrams was watching the news, so Willa told her where she was going, and she got a hard hug from the sweet old lady.